“Gilligan’s Island” : Tina Louise, Dawn Wells Speak About Russell Johnson’s Death

Russell Johnson from Gilligan’s Island, who played the Professor has died aged 89…

His death was confirmed by his agent on Thursday — Johnson died at his home in Washington State of natural causes.

Only Tina Louise and Dawn Wells are still alive, who were both part of the seven castaways on Gilligan’s Island.

Among the many people who expressed sadness over Johnson’s passing was Dawn Wells, who played Mary Ann on “Gilligan’s Island.” Wells took to Facebook to express her grief, and her post also mentions the late Bob Denver, who portrayed Gilligan on the show. “My 2 favorite people are now gone,” Wells wrote. “The Professor [passed] away this morning. My heart is broken.”

Johnson had appeared in Westerns including “Law and Order” (1953) starring future President Ronald Reagan and sci-fi films including “It Came from Outer Space” (1953), “This Island Earth” (1955) and “Attack of the Crab Monsters” (1957).

John Gabriel, best known for his later role on the soap opera “Ryan’s Hope,” initially was cast in the Professor role but the producers wanted someone else. Johnson said he twice turned down auditions for “Gilligan’s Island” because he was in the running for starring roles on other series.

“I didn’t want to be one of seven,” he told the Archive of American Television in 2004.

The other roles fell through, he auditioned and got the job.

The cast also included Alan Hale Jr. as “The Skipper,” Jim Backus as millionaire Thurston Howell III, Natalie Schafer as his wife, and Tina Louise as movie star Ginger.

“Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip,” the show’s theme song promised, as the crew of two and their five passengers sailed into a storm on what was supposed to be a three-hour pleasure tour from Honolulu.

For all his supposed scientific expertise, The Professor failed to devise a way to get the castaways off the island – even as a procession of guest stars successfully dropped in and were able to get out.

“The Professor was the glue that held the more colorful characters in place in the Gilligan mosaic,” Schwartz wrote in his book “Inside Gilligan’s Island.” “And Russell Johnson played him perfectly: intellectual, serious, sincere. He supplied the logic on the island and he supplied it so well that he convinced the other castaways and the viewers as well that whatever he said was scientifically sound.”

MARY ANN’S NAVEL

Schwartz, who later produced “The Brady Bunch” series, kept “Gilligan’s Island” completely chaste, even with the voluptuous Tina Louise and former Miss Nevada Dawn Wells parading around.

“He kept its innocence,” Johnson said of Schwartz.

“In those days, we were working in a situation where you couldn’t see a woman’s navel. I mean it,” he told the Archive of American Television. “On Dawn Wells’ shorts, they had to bring it up a little bit so you didn’t see her navel. They were fighting all the time with Tina Louise’s cleavage.”

Johnson said that in one episode, a character played by Zsa Zsa Gabor showed up on the island. “She makes a play for The Professor. She’s really all over him. And he’s talking about Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) and flora and fauna.”

“They kept The Professor asexual,” Johnson said.

One controversy involved the show’s theme song. In the first season, every character except The Professor and Mary Ann was mentioned — they were tossed off with the words “and the rest.” Johnson and Wells complained and their characters eventually were inserted into the song.

The show ended after three seasons and 99 episodes. There also were TV movie sequels like “Rescue from Gilligan’s Island” (1978), “The Castaways on Gilligan’s Island” (1979) and “The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island” (1981).

Johnson also appeared on a variety of other TV shows including “Dallas” and “Dynasty.” Denver’s death in 2005 left Johnson as the last surviving male cast member of “Gilligan’s Island.”

Johnson was born in 1924 in Pennsylvania and was sent to a boarding school with his brothers when his father died.

He was married three times and had two children and one stepchild. He married his third wife, Constance, in 1982 and they lived in Washington state. His son, David, died of AIDS at age 39 in 1994 and Johnson became active in AIDS fund-raising efforts.

Reuters/Canadajournal